Not a California dream
by Lady Carlton
Summary: After a quite stressful day, Seeley Joseph Booth was at his place, looking forward to just shut the world off and be alone. But, no matter how lonely he would want to be, there was always this one person he'd allow into his private world.


So, this is just a little something that I thought of and that wouldn't leave me alone, so decided to just write it. Now that it's done I'm not sure of it (I'm blaming it on my cold and all the medicine I'm taking so yeah, bear with me people) but still, I thought I'd share it... Don't be so harsh, please :P

**Disclaimer:** Nope. Do not own anything related to Bones; it all belongs to Fox.

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><p>It was Saturday night and Seeley Joseph Booth found himself lying on his bed, staring blankly at his ceiling. The luminous clock on his nightstand let him know that it was only 8:26 pm when his phone rang.<p>

Grunting, he grabbed the phone that was next to his pillow. The caller ID said it was Jared. Without a second thought, Booth pressed "ignore" instead of "answer". Whatever problem his younger brother had this time, he'd have to deal with it himself. Right now, Booth wanted quietness. He wanted to be alone, so he put his phone on silent mode and tossed it on his bedside table, not addressing it one second glance.

Honestly, Seeley thought it would be a quiet end of a pretty awful day but he was clearly wrong. About thirty minutes after he ditched his phone, someone knocked on his door.

"Oh, for God's sake, just go away," he muttered, grabbing a pillow and covering his face with it.

Obviously, his prayer wasn't answered when his visitor knocked once again, and also called him.

"Booth." Another knock. "Booth, I know you're there!"

Booth shut his eyes closed and rubbed his face before pushing himself out of bed. He grabbed the first T-shirt he could find on his wardrobe and, while still trying to put it on, walked with lazy steps towards the door.

"Booth, open up!"

He stood for about five seconds, maybe a bit more, staring at his door before unlocking it.

"Where's the fire, Bones?"

Temperance Brennan, the person who had been insistently knocking on his door for the past two minutes or so, frowned and tilted her head a bit to the right while looking at her partner.

"What fire?"

Seeley smiled mildly. That was just like Bones – taking things literally.

"Never mind, come in." He held the door open so she could get in his apartment. "So, something's wrong?"

"I was to ask you the same thing," Brennan said as she turned to face Booth who was just locking the door.

"Why's that?"

"I called you."

"You did?"

"Yes. Three times." Brennan was looking at him quite seriously. "You didn't answer so I decided to come here…"

Booth walked his way to the sofa and allowed his body to fall on it. He remembered his phone was on silent mode.

"You didn't need to. I'm fine."

"Really? I know it's not my area of expertise but you seem awful to me."

Suddenly, Booth found himself laughing. Not hysterically, just a soft laugh.

"What? What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just… you're right," he admitted. He had stopped laughing.

Brennan was right. Reading people was definitely not her area of expertise but she was right. He wasn't good.

"So," she said sitting by his side. "What is it?"

"It's… Rebecca. She's moving to California."

"Oh… and… you don't want her to?"

"No."

"You'll… miss her."

"What?" Booth turned his head to face Brennan. The tone she used made him frown. "No! I don't want her to move but that's because she's taking Parker with her."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

Brennan swallowed hard. She knew how much Booth loved his son and it'd hurt him a lot not being able to see him on weekends.

"What will you do?"

"I don't know," he admitted letting his head fall back.

Booth had tried to talk to Rebecca the whole day about that but they got nowhere. She was offered a job in California and it was way too god for her to say no. That and her new boyfriend – a journalist – was moving with them as well. They ended up arguing at some point and he just gave up on the whole talking thing.

"I just don't know…"

"Well… you could ask for his custody."

"I can't do that, Bones. I can't take Parker away from his mother. Besides, I'm hardly at home and he's just a kid…"

Brennan sat back on the sofa and thought about that. She knew Booth good enough to know that he wouldn't do anything to his son that had just a little possibility of hurting him somehow.

She did not have a child and couldn't begin to wonder how hard it was on Booth, but, judging by his appearance, he seemed to be miserable – to say the very least – about it.

"I'm sorry, Booth..."

At the sound of Brennan's voice, Booth opened his eyes. She sounded really sorry about it.

He had been through that the whole day and had tried to put that subject aside for a while but there he was, not only thinking about it, but also pouring his problem on someone else.

"Yeah, so am I," he said looking at Brennan. Her beautiful blue eyes had this not so pretty shade of sadness.

"I wish I could help you, somehow..."

"How about you buy me a beer? After a day like today, I could really use a drink right now..."

Brennan smiled. She knew what Booth was doing and decided to go with it.

"Alright. Get your coat and give me the keys."

"Keys? No. There is no way I'm letting you drive..."

"I'm paying, so I get to drive."

"Who said that?"

"I did."

Seeley chuckled but agreed to her terms because he enjoyed Bones' company a lot.

For now, the California problem seemed to be huge, monumental maybe, and he couldn't think of a solution to that, so he needed a distraction. Maybe tomorrow he'd know what to do, but, today, if he could have a beer with his friend, that would bring a bit of silver lining for his day.


End file.
